8th Day: Church of Fools Resurgam - Church of Fools in the Covid Pandemic: how to join us
As @Simon has announced in the Styx, we're revisiting the Church of Fools concept in what we hope will be a distinctively Ship manner.
Times have changed since 2004, not least in terms of online user experience and software. We'll be posting details of how to attend Church of Fools services here, along with technical advice. You should ask any CoF-related technical questions here, rather than in the Styx.
Please also feel free to add other threads relating to CoF in any way to this board.
Eutychus
SoF admin
Times have changed since 2004, not least in terms of online user experience and software. We'll be posting details of how to attend Church of Fools services here, along with technical advice. You should ask any CoF-related technical questions here, rather than in the Styx.
Please also feel free to add other threads relating to CoF in any way to this board.
Eutychus
SoF admin
Comments
1. You do not need to have your camera enabled to join us.
2. For most of each service we will mute all microphones except those for people making a contribution at that point. We don't want everyone to hear when your cat coughs up a hairball during the sermon.
3. Within Zoom, if you hover over your image you'll see a set of three dots at the top right, that gives access to some preferences including one to change the name used - you may prefer to be present under your Ship screen name so that people know who you are.
4. We will be using the text chat features, especially for the "after service coffee" chat. More extensive discussions of the sermon can continue here on the 8th Day forum.
Plus some people are not very teachable and need to slow down and listen!
Re test run, I'd suggest turning on the Zoom link maybe 20 mins ahead of time. Perhaps with a soundtrack.
Guardian) that the ZOOM software has been something of an open door for malware. Any ideas how we can protect ourselves from that?
(The personal version is free, enterprise version is about £8 monthly - there is a possibility of discount for non-profit organisations.)
Church of Fools 2 is presented as a quick, temporary, and easily-accessible response to a crisis situation rather than as a fully tested and 100% secure solution. We've deemed Zoom to be an acceptable compromise in order to provide that kind of response, and taken what steps we can to make it safe.
Our first layer of security is to have made access to Church of Fools 2 available only via the 8th Day Forum, which has been made visible only to Shipmates. This should protect against gatecrashers.
As previously mentioned, you should also be able to choose to use your Ship name rather than your real name when you join the meeting, to preserve your anonymity as you would on the rest of the Ship.
We'll also be implementing other in-meeting controls designed to prevent disruption.
Apart from that, the content of our meetings is not likely to be of interest to anyone else, and in our estimation, the other privacy risks to participants are not significantly greater than those routinely taken by users of regular social media.
This is an Eighth Day project: as such, it's learning curve for all of us, and we'll be reviewing things as we go along.
Those who were in the original CoF will interpret that as a reference to the Wardens having a "SMITE" button. And be greatly reassured cough cough.
The security issues with Zoom, as far as I can see, is all down to the entry code being published on the open web. Our group distributed via Whats App*, Are we publishing in a private place?
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*The lack of apostrophe gets me every time. GRR.
Please take care to adjust your screen name to your Ship name immediately on entering the meeting if you're an existing Zoom user. You can do this using the three dots on the top right of the screen.
Greeting: Revelation 21:3 (BroJames)
Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
Informal welcome from host (Simon)
OT Reading: Lamentations 1:1-2,6,16, 2:11, 3:21-27, 31-33 (Eutychus and Alan Cresswell)
[Eutychus] How deserted lies the city, once so full of people!
How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations!
She who was queen among the provinces has now become a slave.
Bitterly she weeps at night, tears are on her cheeks.
Among all her lovers there is no one to comfort her.
All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.
All the splendor has departed from Daughter Zion.
Her princes are like deer that find no pasture;
in weakness they have fled before the pursuer.
This is why I weep and my eyes overflow with tears.
No one is near to comfort me, no one to restore my spirit.
My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.
My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within;
my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed,
because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.
[Alan Cresswell] Yet this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.
For no one is cast off by the Lord forever.
Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.
For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.
NT Reading: John 12:12-16 (Rossweisse)
The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!” Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: "Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.
Sermon: (5 minutes) (Rossweisse)
Prayer: The Lord's Prayer (in whatever version and language each participant chooses) (Miss Amanda)
Dismissal: Psalm 67:1 (BroJames)
May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us. Amen.
Coffee Hour: Invitation to stay on and chat (Simon)
[zoom link removed]
Re security: we dealt with this issue at my office yesterday. The issue is people who have identified the meeting ID number having access to audio and screen sharing "Zoom bombing" meetings. This is unlikely to be a problem for us as the congregation won't be doing audio or screen stuff.
In terms of malware invading from your browser or app, our office IT consultant hasn't suggested any risks. I make no guarantees about anything however.
About the Antipodes: that's where I am. In my time zone this week (still on "daylight saving") service started at 0730 on Saturday. I'm an early riser, but my wife is not, so she's not on to this.
Worse, next week cival time here comes off daylight saving, so next week we will be on GMT+10, so a service starting at 2030 GMT would start here at 0630, which is pre-dawn. I don't think even I would make that! New Zealand is 2 hours ahead of us, so GMT+12, which is not so bad.
Many thanks to Simon and all who contributed 👏🏼
Wouldn't you just know it - now the Feline Ministry to the Sick shows up!
Not an alien invasion then
Ha, guess it must have looked like that, especially when I turned off the camera - my face and my big thumb kept distracting me!
Good to see you, Daffodil.
We'll explain the "rejuvenate" feature on Zoom more clearly next time...
I was about to check in (late!) when the Magic Interweb connection decided to go v e r y s l o w or something, and all I got was that hateful phrase 'This page cannot be displayed'...
I blame Trump. Or Satan.
I've seen it done at an online service- there is a celebrant who consecrates what is with him physically. It's a moot point whether that prayer could be extended to bread and wine in the joined locations. And of course for folks who take a memorialist view it's not an issue, Not a point that bothers me personally but it might bother some Shipmates.
Very kind. The photo of me in the Ship's records is about 16 years old ......
Would it be sinful if in a subsequent service we ALL played clergy dress up?! Must find out how this is done.